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USB Mouse Project

admsteck

Here is my project.  There is a website which helps you learn morse code (lcwo.net) and one of the features they have is a morse to text converter.  This allows you to tap out morse code using the mouse and it will convert to text.  For a more realistic experience, I would like to be able to use a real telegraph key.  My thought is to use a small microcontroller to provide the usb interface and I would only need one button and none of the x, y, or scroll.

 

I have no experience with microcontrollers and wanted to know which would be a good fit for this application.  I found a few PDFs that discuss using an atmel avr for a usb mouse application, but they focus primarily on the usb side of things and not the hardware.  I thought of buying a cheap usb mouse (all the extras I have are ps2), but I though this would be a good challenge and introduction to microcontrollers.  Thanks.

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    That's a cool idea, and Joshua Bayfield's idea of using a Teensy also sounds like an interesting idea.  As far as what happens electronically (or more correctly electromechanically) when you press the mouse button it activates a tactile switch that sends a Voltage High signal across the USB connection to the controller (most are made by FTDI).  Hooking a 25-cent push-to-make tactile switch to a digital input on the uC is really all there is to that end of the hardware.  Your code would have to poll the input to detect when the button went high.  Just an example; in an Arduino this would be the DigitalHigh event.

    Having said that; if you want to use an Arduino, you might need to use a Due.  That board has an FTDI controller on the PCB to pass USB protocol signals.  Not having done this myself on a website I would encourage you to go to one of the forums for whatever uC you decide on.

    You will have to experiment with how the coding is implemented on the website.  Many computer languages have a variant on click-down (mouse button is pressed) and click-up (mouse button returns to open state) commands.  Most coders will use the click-up event.  That's why you can press the mouse button and it won't do anything until you release the button.  I'm guessing that's the case for this website; as it would need some way to distinguish timing between a dot and a dash.

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    That's a cool idea, and Joshua Bayfield's idea of using a Teensy also sounds like an interesting idea.  As far as what happens electronically (or more correctly electromechanically) when you press the mouse button it activates a tactile switch that sends a Voltage High signal across the USB connection to the controller (most are made by FTDI).  Hooking a 25-cent push-to-make tactile switch to a digital input on the uC is really all there is to that end of the hardware.  Your code would have to poll the input to detect when the button went high.  Just an example; in an Arduino this would be the DigitalHigh event.

    Having said that; if you want to use an Arduino, you might need to use a Due.  That board has an FTDI controller on the PCB to pass USB protocol signals.  Not having done this myself on a website I would encourage you to go to one of the forums for whatever uC you decide on.

    You will have to experiment with how the coding is implemented on the website.  Many computer languages have a variant on click-down (mouse button is pressed) and click-up (mouse button returns to open state) commands.  Most coders will use the click-up event.  That's why you can press the mouse button and it won't do anything until you release the button.  I'm guessing that's the case for this website; as it would need some way to distinguish timing between a dot and a dash.

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